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Conservation At Galapagos Islands. ... The growing population of the Galapagos
Islands was very detrimental to the islands’ ecosystem. ...
Life in the Galapagos Islands (or What's Left of It). A young couple ready
for their honeymoon chooses to go to the Galapagos Islands. ...
Mellville And Darwin's Writings On The Galapagos Islands. ... Both passages talk
of the scattered black hills that form the Galapagos Islands. ...
galapagos islands. Welcome to the Galapagos Islands! ... The Galapagos Islands
are located on the equator west of the South American coast. ...
The Galapagos Islands. ... All the fame and fortune does not come without a price though.
There are many species of animals native to the Galapagos Islands. ...
Submitted by carolinagirl35 on May 11, 2008
Category: Science
Words: 1915 | Pages: 8
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The Galapagos Islands
Christy Bosley
Axia College of University of Phoenix
SCI 230
Angela Buffington
March 16, 2008
The Galapagos Islands
The Archipelago de Colon is better known as the Galapagos Islands, who got their name from the Spanish word galapago. This word means “saddle” and refers to the shells of one of the islands’ most famous inhabitants, the Galapagos Giant Tortoise (Wikipedia, n.d.). The Galapagos Islands are a group of volcanic islands located about six hundred miles from Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. This series of islands was the very first World Heritage Site chosen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO (Nelson, 2007).
An excellent example of this “adaptive radiation” is Darwin’s Finches. In fact, it was his study of these birds which led Charles Darwin to describe this phenomenon. As Darwin explored the Galapagos while on board the survey ship HMS Beagle, he noticed that each island he visited had a different type of bird. To Darwin, it appeared that the islands were inhabited by many widely-varying species of birds (Wikipedia, n.d.). Upon his return to England, Darwin carefully analyzed his specimens. A bird specialist at the Natural History Museum, John Gould, told Darwin that all of them were finches. This led Darwin to speculate that all of the species arose from a few, or perhaps only one, bird who had arrived at one of the islands at some time in the past (Nebraska Citizens For Science, 2005).
Darwin’s Finches are about the size of a sparrow and similar in appearance except for their beaks, which are specialized according to how they are used. The size and shape of the various beaks indicate the diet of the bird. About 13 species of finch inhabit the Galapagos Islands (Galapagos Online, 1999). The Galapagos Giant Tortoise also shows how...
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